A Schott to Breathe
by agent-winn-schott
Summary: "Winn sat down at his desk. He felt slightly dejected about what just happened, I mean, he was supposed to be the resident techie here, right?" A new agent starts working at the DEO and disrupts Winn Schott's workplace, and quite frankly, his world. Winn-centric story, but all characters involved. Eventual romance.


**A/N: Hello! I'm a huge fan of the character Winn Schott and the actor Jeremy Jordan. I'm annoyed by this nine week hiatus we're embarking on, especially since it's prolonging the time to the long-awaited Winn-centric episode. This is my solution to keeping my sanity in the meanwhile. Hoping to update approximately 1-2x per week. Enjoy, and please give feedback!**

* * *

Winn pondered when the last time was that he had gotten a full night of sleep. He honestly couldn't remember. Between working at the DEO and helping Guardian, he only averaged 3-4 hours a night. Sure, the large soda he sipped on continuously throughout the day helped, but he was still exhausted. His back and neck ached and often it felt like his body was being drained of all of its energy. But what other options did he have? At the DEO he was needed to guide people in the field and, God knows, James would be dead by now if he wasn't guiding him in the van. People relied on him. Which, he admitted to himself, felt good. It gave him a purpose. But, as he so eloquently stated before, Winn was tired.

He felt himself nodding off behind the computer, so he stood up to stretch and take another drink of his soda. He heard someone walking up behind him, so he turned around to see Alex come up to him with someone he didn't recognize in tow. "Hey Winn," she started. "This is Agent Shapiro. She just finished with her combat training. She also has a background in computer engineering, so we thought we would have her work under you when she isn't needed in the field."

Winn looked over at the woman with Alex. She was pretty, in a non-overbearing sort of way. She had long, blonde hair that was pulled back in a braid, beautiful green eyes behind a pair of tortoise-shell glasses, and a professional, yet still kind, smile. He thought back to his days in college with other computer engineering majors, and none of them looked like her. He made a mental note that she probably was going to be like the other DEO computer techies. Competent, but not on the same expert level as him. But he wasn't going to complain, he could use whatever extra help he could get.

"Hi, I'm Agent Schott, but you could call me Winn." He shook her hand and noticed her long, toned arms. Probably further accentuated by all of the combat training she just completed. "Unless, ya know, you want me to really like you. In which case, call me Agent Schott," he joked.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Agent Taylor Shapiro. I'm excited to get started here."

"And it looks like you're about to get started right now" Alex said as she watched J'onn walk down the stairs towards them and Kara fly in through her DEO entrance. They both had that look on their face, it was a mix of concern and extreme focus, that always told her they were about to start a new case.

Winn quickly showed Taylor a desk area and computer she could use. "I'll start training you once I'm done dealing with whatever they have going on," referencing the team that now was building around the center of the room. "In the meanwhile, just make yourself comfortable," he smiled.

The informal meeting began, with J'onn filling everyone in about the latest crisis. This time it was a Fort Rozz escapee that seemed to be racking up the materials needed to make a bomb. And not just any bomb, one that was large enough to wipe out at least half of National City. Winn noted that when he first started at the DEO, that would be enough to send him into panic mode. But now, maybe because of his fatigue, or maybe just because of the amount of dangerous situations he's witnessed since working there, it seemed like just another day in the office.

"Winn, could you possibly figure out a way to track down this suspect?" J'onn asked.

"Yeah, I could set up a tracer to look for the materials he's taken thus far. But it won't be ready for another hour or two."

"I could trace that in a few seconds." Everyone's head turned to source of the voice. It was Taylor, who was typing something on the computer in front of her.

"U-uhm, o-okay. I mean, I'm pretty sure that isn't possible, but you can go ahead and try," Winn stuttered in response.

Just then, she gave Winn a coy look and on her screen were the coordinates of an abandoned warehouse about 10 miles from where they currently were. "Your guy should be here." Taylor stated.

"There's no way that could be accurate. How did you even do that?" Winn said, looking unbelieving at Taylor.

"It's simple really. I just enhanced the algorithm you already had to track down Kryptonite and rewrote it for the materials this guy has. Then I just cross-referenced to see what location had all of the materials present. So that's where your suspect should be," Taylor explained. Rolling her eyes with a tight-lipped smile she continued, "or you could do whatever you were going to do for the next hour or two. Probably going to come up with the same result though."

Winn glared at her out of the corner of his eye, but was silent, looking at her work over her shoulder. He didn't appreciate the cockiness, but she was right, it should work.

"Winn? Earth to Winn?" Kara said, waving her hand in front of him. It didn't seem to work, he was still staring intently at Taylor's computer.

"Agent Schott!" J'onn yelled exasperated. That seemed to snap Winn out of it. "Is it a reliable lead or not?"

"Y-yeah. It should work," Winn mumbled. Damn right, Taylor thought to herself.

"Well then. Good job Agent –" J'onn paused, looking at Taylor.

"Shapiro. Agent Taylor Shapiro, sir."

"Right. Good job Agent Shapiro," J'onn said. "Let's get going everyone. Supergirl, you lead the way. I'll have a strike team meet you there to support you, just in case."

Winn sat down at his desk. He felt slightly dejected about what just happened, I mean, he was supposed to be the resident techie here, right? But he chalked it up to beginner's luck and tried to move forward. He started pulling up blueprints for the warehouse Supergirl and the strike team were headed for as well as any security footage he could tap into.

"I already tapped into the security footage in the area," Taylor said over to Winn. "And the blue prints are downloading as we speak."

"Show off," Winn whispered to himself. Maybe it wasn't beginner's luck after all. He looked up to see J'onn glaring at him, no doubt having heard his small quip and possibly hearing some other not-so-nice thoughts passing through his mind. He looked away and decided to focus on getting the coms set up.

* * *

Twenty minutes later the rogue alien was caught and being checked into the DEO. J'onn briefly stopped by the tech bay to congratulate Agent Shapiro on a job well done. He laughed to himself a little bit when he sensed a bit of jealousy from Winn's thoughts.

Winn decided if he was going to make this work relationship a more positive one, he had to put forth a more positive attitude. He had enough on his plate without having coworker he disliked. So he made his way over to Taylor, who was focused on whatever she was doing on her computer.

"Taylor, that was really impressive for your first mission. Good Job!" Winn said.

"Agent Shapiro," she replied.

"Excuse me?"

"You can call me Agent Shapiro," she said, without glancing up from her computer screen.

"O-oh. Right, of course. Good job, Agent Shapiro!" Winn said, with a little less excitement. She made a tight smile, but said nothing in return. He walked, clearly deflated, back to his computer, thinking there was little hope for this to be a positive relationship after all. Seeing as the crisis was over and it was already pretty late, he decided to start wrapping things up. James would want to meet with him soon to get started on Guardian's night activities.

Taylor still stared intently at her screen, but she wasn't actually doing anything on it. She thought that maybe she was a little too harsh on Winn. Clearly, he was a fairly sensitive person. However, from her previous experience working in the field of computer engineering—a field so often dominated by men—she knew all too well that she had to earn respect early. Otherwise, she would just be seen as the dumb blonde that they could take advantage of. She had experienced it too many times before to let it happen again, and this was the only way she knew to escape it—being a little rough along the edges and making very clear boundaries. She began thinking about all of the previous jobs and cities she had blown through up until this point due to being undervalued. She really wanted this to be the job she finally landed on.

She closed her computer and made her way to the training room, hoping that spending some time hitting things would help clear her mind.


End file.
